


The Very Deep Adventures of Momo and Kaidoh

by thawrecka



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Gen, Humor, Vicious attack cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-29
Updated: 2007-06-29
Packaged: 2017-11-20 03:57:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/581058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thawrecka/pseuds/thawrecka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Momo and Kaidoh hang.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Very Deep Adventures of Momo and Kaidoh

**Author's Note:**

> For the 2007 TeniPuri Gen Anon Exchange.

It was a warm sunny day, the golden light coating the streets and bringing the trees and plants to glorious life. The birds were chirping happily in their leafy homes. Children played with pets on the sidewalks, the occasional car rumbled by and Momoshiro and Kaidoh were hanging out to play.

...That is to say, Kaidoh was standing in the park with a grumpy look on his face, wondering why Momo had called him. Momo was wondering a bit, too.

"What did you want?" Kaidoh growled, in his very Kaidoh way.

"No need to get testy, Viper," Momo replied, trying to be calm and cool. He had thought he looked terribly cool when he left the house that morning but Ryoma had dealt him a typically cutting remark as he passed him on the way somewhere.

"Why did you call me?" Kaidoh asked.

Momo wasn't really sure how to answer. In fact, he really wasn't sure why he'd called Kaidoh, either. He'd just had this strange feeling that morning when he woke up that he wanted to call Kaidoh and hang out. He wondered if this was a sign that there was something weird in last night's dinner.

"Stop whining," Momoshiro replied.

Kaidoh stood there awkwardly, tensed to run at the first provocation and obviously confused by Momo's weird behaviour.

Momo thought to himself. What could he possibly want with Kaidoh? Suddenly, he had a truly brilliant idea.

"Let's go to the arcade!" he said.

"Why?" Kaidoh looked even more confused than before.

"Training," Momoshiro declared.

"Training?" Kaidoh asked. His eyes lit up a little.

"Training you to be less of a loser."

"Shut up!"

Kaidoh continued to protest, of course. He couldn't see any possible reasons to go to a loud place full of annoying people and play stupid video games. Momoshiro dragged him there, nonetheless. There was something Momo found amusing about having to drag Kaidoh somewhere to have fun. Maybe he has a fun deficiency gene, Momo thought. That would explain a lot about Kaidoh.

Of course, once Momo got Kaidoh there he stood about looking stupid and refused to play.

"Come on," Momo whined. "Just one game! One!"

"No."

"You suck!"

"Shut up! I have better things to do than listen to your whining!"

Kaidoh turned to leave.

"You're just scared because you know I'll beat you," Momo said, loud and clear.

Kaidoh stopped in the middle of a step. It was true that he didn't see any real point to this, yes, but his honour was on the line. He had to prove that he could beat that annoying pineapple-head at anything. How hard could it be?

Kaidoh stalked back and glared. "Bring it on!"

 

The next day Momo called again.

"Meet me at the park to hang out," he said.

"Why?" Kaidoh asked.

"Just do it."

They argued for a further 45 minutes. They met in the park, anyway.

 

Afterwards, Kaidoh was again, very confused. He was not planning to talk about it at all and in fact, would like to forget it happened, but luck was not in his favour. Kikumaru bumped into him (and draped himself over Kaidoh like some sort of limpet) on the way home.

Kikumaru pouted at him. "Kaidoh, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, sempai."

Kaidoh twitched. Kikumaru was poking his shoulder. He wanted Kikumaru to stop it.

"Then why are you making such a weird face?"

"My face is not weird."

"But you look like a puppy that lost its owner! So sad! Did you lose your racket?"

"No."

"Is your family moving to Outer Mongolia?"

"No."

"Did pirates abduct you and force you to use tennis to advance their secret war against ninjas?"

"No, sempai." Kaidoh sighed.

"Then what is it?" Kikumaru asked. He looked very annoyed.

Kaidoh weighed his options. On the one hand, he didn't want to talk about it and he very much wanted Kikumaru to go away. On the other, maybe his sempai would know why Momoshiro was acting so strangely. Kikumaru did spend a lot of time with Momoshiro and might know what weird stuff went on in his brain.

"It's about Momoshiro," Kaidoh began.

"Eh?" Kikumaru said. "Are you two fighting again?"

"No. I wish we were. That would be less stupid."

"Then what happened?" Kikumaru's eyes were ridiculously wide. Kaidoh idly wondered how it was possible for any person to have eyes that big.

"He forced me to go to the arcade with him."

"What did he make you do?"

"He made me play dumb racing games."

"Who won?"

"He did, but he cheated! Well, I won the last one."

"Weird."

"What do you think is wrong with him?" Kaidoh asked. "He keeps trying to hang out with me."

"Oh no!" Kikumaru exclaimed. "What if he's sick? What if Momo is dying?"

"What?"

"That must be it! He's trying to make peace with you so he doesn't have any regrets in his last days! So tragic! How could he not have told us?"

Kikumaru went running off dramatically. Kaidoh blinked.

 

This time it was Kaidoh who called.

"Um," he began and coughed delicately. "Hello."

"What do you want?" Momo asked.

"Um. Meet me near the street court," Kaidoh said and hung up abruptly.

 

Kaidoh acted weird from the moment they met up. First he looked all weird at Momo when he showed up, like he was trying to microscope Momo's face. Then he patted Momo awkwardly on the shoulder. Then when Momo suggested they play some tennis, he said, "Are you sure?"

"Viper, have you had your brain replaced by aliens?" Momo asked.

"No!"

"Then let's play tennis, you big weirdo."

When they moved to either side of the net Momo thought the weirdness would pass. Instead it got worse. Kaidoh kept playing really badly and not in the 'I just suck' sort of way. Momo could tell it was on purpose. This really pissed him off.

He was so fired up that he hit a really hard ball at Kaidoh and Kaidoh, being Kaidoh, returned it with his signature move, without thinking at all. It hit Momo in the shin and then bounced out of the court.

Momo thought this was more like it. Maybe if he did that again he could get Kaidoh to act like himself.

At least, he thought that until he saw Kaidoh moving to his side of the court and asking carefully, "Are you okay?"

Momo looked around. He couldn't see anyone trying to hide behind bushes or any cameras. That meant it wasn't a practical joke, which meant that this was probably a sign of the end times instead. Kaidoh had gone crazy, next would come a rain of fire and the end of the world.

"Are you insane?" Momo asked.

"No."

"Then stop sucking! Play me properly! Don't be such a dick."

"But with your condition..."

"My condition?" Momo stared at Kaidoh like he'd grown a second head. "Have you been talking to Eiji-sempai?"

"Yes."

"I don't have a condition! He's just crazy. Play me like a man."

Kaidoh finally started looking like himself again. He went back over the other side of the net while Momo fetched the ball and then they played until they were soaked in sweat and dirt and generally pretty gross. Gross and hungry, so they went out to eat afterwards. It was sweet.

 

The next time they found themselves hanging out was entirely by accident. They were walking in different directions, content to stop briefly to glare at each other and then go on their merry way. They were about to step around each other and move on when, all of a sudden, a little girl yelled that her kitty was caught up a tree. Kaidoh was weak to animals and danger and Momo was weak to the girl's tears, so they had to stay and help.

"You climb up and get it down, Viper."

"Okay."

"What? No! I'm going to climb up and get it down," Momo protested.

"I already said I'd do it," Kaidoh growled.

"How do I know your ugly face won't scare it higher up the tree?"

"How do I know you won't get your stupid all over it and it won't want to come down?"

"Fine, you climb up the tree. I'll stay down here and supervise," Momo declared, crossing his arms.

"Fine!"

With that, Kaidoh began to climb the tree. It was a rather large tree and he didn't really know how high he had to go but he'd show that stupid oaf that he was better than anyone at rescuing cats in danger.

On the ground Momo was discussing the finer details with the little girl.

"That's where she is," she said, pointing to a branch that reached out quite far.

The cat was balanced precariously on the edge, looking small and fluffy and very scared.

"Aw, that's a cute cat," Momo said. "What's her name?"

"Her name is Cat," the little girl replied.

"Original."

Kaidoh was halfway up the tree, looking very annoyed.

"You're almost there, Viper," Momo called out helpfully, in a sing-song voice.

"Shut up! I can find it on my own."

"I guess you don't need me to tell you it's a little to your right, then?"

Kaidoh wriggled out onto the outreaching branch, crawling along it like a man at war. He looked at the cat with caring eyes. The cat sent back a pleading look.

"Mrrow," it said, in a beseeching voice.

"What is he doing up there?" Momo wondered out loud at the strange noises and exchange of bizarre facial expressions going on up in the tree.

Through some sort of strange magic, Kaidoh convinced the cat to scamper back towards him and into the arms of safety. It ran over to his shoulder, idly scratching his face as it did so, and affixed itself firmly to his shirt. It was a difficult job, trying to wriggle his way back upright, while holding the cat and not losing balance, and he made many slow, awkward movements on the way, but eventually Kaidoh came back down to the ground with a purring moggy in hand.

He handed the cat back to the grateful little girl and tried not to bleed too obviously from the face.

"Thank you," the little girl said and skipped away, happy as a lamb.

"Come on, my mum has band-aids," Momo said.

Not only did she have band-aids, she also had food enough for two growing boys.

 

Momo was confused. He and Kaidoh kept hanging out and it kept mostly not sucking. What was up with that? He felt that he really needed to talk to someone about this, so lucky for him that he saw Oishi in the supermarket that afternoon.

"Hey Oishi-sempai," Momo called out.

"Hello Momo," Oishi replied, smiling gently. "How have you been?"

"Good, good. Listen, I have a problem and I was wondering if you could help me figure it out. You're good with all that advice stuff."

"I guess I could give it a go," Oishi said. "What's it about?"

"Well, see, me and Viper keep going places and having fun together and we don't even fight that much. What do you think's gone wrong?"

Oishi looked surprised for a moment, then blinked and laughed, gently. "Well, it seems that you're becoming friends."

"Friends? With that snake?" Momo was shocked at the very idea.

"Yes! That's how it sounds."

"But we're rivals! Rivals don't become friends," Momo said.

"That's not true. Eiji and I used to be rivals."

"Really?" Momo asked, though he had the feeling he'd heard this story before.

"Initially Eiji only wanted to be my partner so he could learn all my weaknesses and beat me but before we knew it, friendship snuck up on us. There's no use resisting it. You're just doomed to be friends."

"Thanks, Vice Captain," Momo said, his voice a little glum. He'd been hoping it was some sort of horrible disease he and Kaidoh had been inflicted with that made them act this way. The idea that they really were just becoming friends was a little disappointing.

 

There was only one way Momo could think of to deal with this. He called Kaidoh.

"Hey, Viper! Hang out with me tomorrow."


End file.
